Nifty, but I doubt the farmers he wants to use this are going to have the capability to use the GPS tracker. So unless they're pushing this back and forth across a field, it's a little random for mine work.

ReapTheChaos:Seeing as it just randomly rolls where the wind blows it, I don't see what good that would do for clearing land mines, not with any trustworthiness anyway.

And it only works in very flat barren areas with high wind. And what happens when it reaches the other side of the minefield? Do you run across the mines to catch it? Do you let it blow away forever? I feel like a heavy cheap weight like a metal plate or piece of pipe pulled by a rope from the edge of the field would be a more thorough and reliable way to search, especially in the specific environment this thing is for.

There's no way I'd trust the random movement of that ball to clear a minefield.

Lsherm:Nifty, but I doubt the farmers he wants to use this are going to have the capability to use the GPS tracker. So unless they're pushing this back and forth across a field, it's a little random for mine work.

I'd line up a row of these upwind on the field, and let them go across, drag them back, and do it several more times. Or if there is a fence around the field, then let them wander back and forth for a while. If it's cheaper than letting a cow wander around.

After that, it's a matter of how much you trust that these set off all the mines which they encountered, and trust your luck to not find a mine that they missed on the remaining smaller patches (smaller than the whole field, at least).

wildcardjack:I give you Strandbeest, wind powered walkers that can be built to pretty much any size.

I think the dandelion tumbleweed's a start. I flashed through a few ideas but the problem is always about having humans near shrapnel.

Sure, you go out there and fix Strandbeest when it loses several legs and gets stranded in the minefield. Or wraps itself around the tree in the pasture. I think you're forgetting the cheap, small, and disposable aspects of the dandelion tumbleweed.

WelldeadLink:wildcardjack:I give you Strandbeest, wind powered walkers that can be built to pretty much any size.

I think the dandelion tumbleweed's a start. I flashed through a few ideas but the problem is always about having humans near shrapnel.

Sure, you go out there and fix Strandbeest when it loses several legs and gets stranded in the minefield. Or wraps itself around the tree in the pasture. I think you're forgetting the cheap, small, and disposable aspects of the dandelion tumbleweed.

Strandbeest are cheap, but you are right about the obstruction issue. And they haven't been made to handle slopes. But They are a beautiful idea. But perhaps the solution really is something more like a remote controlled cheap ass tractor with a drag screen.

WelldeadLink:Lsherm: Nifty, but I doubt the farmers he wants to use this are going to have the capability to use the GPS tracker. So unless they're pushing this back and forth across a field, it's a little random for mine work.

I'd line up a row of these upwind on the field, and let them go across, drag them back, and do it several more times. Or if there is a fence around the field, then let them wander back and forth for a while. If it's cheaper than letting a cow wander around.

After that, it's a matter of how much you trust that these set off all the mines which they encountered, and trust your luck to not find a mine that they missed on the remaining smaller patches (smaller than the whole field, at least).

Fence? Sure. How in the hell are you going to haul them back to the beginning of a mine field if you aren't sure if they've gotten all the mines? You have to walk across the mine field to get them.

OK start with this mindset -"If we don't clear this land of mines so we can farm we are going to starve to death"They already clear mines using a stick and crawling slowly because they have to.Now how does that device look?

IsSteelGeek:OK start with this mindset -"If we don't clear this land of mines so we can farm we are going to starve to death"They already clear mines using a stick and crawling slowly because they have to.Now how does that device look?

If I can only afford the stick?

I think it should be given freely to people because they'll figure out the best way to use it. Ten million will probably clear more mines than anyone else ever will.

That's a good way to think about it - people are dying already, so this will let them die less for a relatively low cost.

Reshape the ball into a cylinder, provide supports on the side, create a fixed axis for the cylinder to revolve around, and tether a cable to the kafon for retrieval across a space to reorient. Allows systematic testing of spaces, two passes, could still utilize wind, and would not require human interaction until the cable is taut. No idea how to design this myself, but those are the modifications I would make to correct the major issues of what is a good beginning idea.

As long as that's a mouse, I'm all for it. I hate mice, and they're invading the house this year like it's armageddon. I think it's because we had a warm winter last year.

Nope, that's a Gambian Pouched Rat. They're about the same size as your average house cat. Very smart and can be trained to find buried explosives and/or test human spit samples for TB faster and more accurately than a human with a microscope.

I had mice invade the house a couple winters ago. They terrified my rats... I found Nutella made great bait to get them into the hav-a-hart traps.